Imperfection
by Adventuresomely
Summary: But everything happens for a reason and I know in the end there was nothing I could do to help him.


What is perfection, exactly?

Maybe some of you would start thinking about a perfect grade on an assignment, or even a perfectly ordered book case – in alphabetical or numerical order, mostly. Those are some pretty logical responses, right? The definition of perfection is flawlessness or being unsurpassably excellent, so a perfect grade or neatly organized book case would be correct!

What is perfection when it's applied to people, though? Well… If you answered non-existent or impossible, you're right again.

For as long as I've known it, perfection has been impossible for a person to obtain. There's literally no such thing as perfection when applied to people. The truth is, as great as you might be, someone else will explicitly hate you for who you are and for what you do. This holds true even if you're a saint and have never done anything wrong in your entire life; someone else will always find a flaw in you and mercilessly pick at that flaw. It's just like the saying goes, then: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nobody is perfect, but everyone is just perfect enough for someone else.

Maybe that's why Pokey hated me so much when we were kids. He had a twisted sense that I and my family were perfect and that we had no troubles whatsoever. I don't really blame him for having that view, either; I was never beaten like he was and I was rarely yelled at. Sure, we were poor and struggled to get by, but my family was loving and supportive; the exact opposite of his.

Poor Pokey: raised in a rich family, unloved and uncared for. Raised to be selfish and uncaring for the people around him, because why should he? Money can buy anything – anything except love and happiness, that is. Only, that's exactly what Pokey wanted in the end and hadn't a clue how to obtain since he'd been raised to hate. He'd been doomed to fail from the very beginning because, as Martin Luther King Jr. says, and I quote: "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

I think about it a lot, where we went wrong as friends so long ago before I had to face him in the end. I know for a fact that jealousy and how he was raised had a lot to do with it, but was it only that which drove him completely insane? I can't say I know for sure; I'm not him and since he went missing a few years back, I'll never be able to ask him to his face now. I'll never quite be able to figure out what his logic behind all of it was. Did Giygas corrupt him to be that way? Or did he manipulate Giygas while it was in its weakest state, to do his bidding against us? After all, Giygas didn't have a mind by time we found it. Insanity and raw energy was all that was left over by then.

I still pity him despite the hell he put us all through. For all of the power he held over people and for all of the genius he had for someone so young, he could've been loved in the world. He could've brought on so many good things and helped so many people in the world. Instead, he became what he hated most: exactly like his parents. They say the apple never falls far from the tree, and in Pokey's case it was sadly true. He had a chance and in his greed for more and to be better than me, threw it all away. It was always just a game to him in the end.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if I could've done anything to save him from the path he chose to take. In some ways I blame myself for how he turned out, but what could I have done differently? I was the same age as him and I didn't even know about the things he suffered at home until a fateful incident one day. I happened to peer into his window and saw him beaten and bloodied on the ground with his father just leaving the room. By that time, it was really too late to do anything about it. The damage had been done and the branded mark of hatred had already found its way to Pokey.

While it's kind of sad to think about it, I know there's nothing that can be done now except move forward like I always have. What's done is done and can't be taken back. As much as I hate to say it, I think all things probably happen for a reason, anyway. Even the far-less than perfect life Pokey lead and ultimately continued probably happened for a reason; maybe to make us stronger in the end? A betrayal, while it hurts, only draws us closer to the hearts we believe in and trust.

Every life affects another for better or for worse; it's just the balance of the universe. Without that balance, why would life be worth living at all? For some people to live happily, others have to suffer. I guess that's the sad story of Pokey in the end; condemned from the start to lead a horrible life so others could be happy. In a sense, does that make him a martyr? Maybe I'm looking too far into these things now, though.

Still it brings us back to the same topic we started with, in the end. Nobody leads a perfect life because a perfect person doesn't exist. Pokey saw me as perfect, when really I'm just a boy who did what he had to do in order to save what's most important to him: my friends, my family and my planet. I was just doing what anyone would do for the people they cared about most. That's not perfection at all; that's humanity.

Wouldn't you do the same for your friends and family if you were in the same position?

Imperfect as we are, most of us have something we deeply care for, and that's perfect enough, in my opinion.


End file.
